Alex M.

Below is an account of my dealings with impragas. It's quite long so at the end I have a summary of the key points if you want to skip:

Early august:
- met the surveyor, outlined exactly how I needed the job to be done, he was very nice and professional. I asked him to guarantee that the work could be done on the dates I wanted. This was especially important for me because I had organised other tradesman to come after the boiler and radiator had been fitted. He assured me there wouldn't be problems.

The work was scheduled for monday and tuesday in mid August. On saturday afternoon 2 days before the work was due to start I got emails saying the job would have to be moved back, the engineer could only get there on monday afternoon but would still be able to finish by tuesday. In the end he didn't turn up until Tuesday.

Long story short:
- the engineer David didn't seem to know what was going on. Everytime I told him what I wanted he said the surveyor never told him that and complained about it being extra work. Whether this is the surveyors fault or the engineers fault I can't be sure. But either way communication between departments of impragas could be improved a lot. At one point he complained about having to put a pipe underneath the floorboards because it meant having to take the floorboards up. To which I volunteered to do it myself because I was sick of these excuses.

- the work ran on a few days later than it was meant to (this would have been fine if the job had been completed as I allowed myself 3 days extra for the job before the next contractor was due to come in). However it did mean that because I only scheduled the monday and tuesday off work I was unable to supervise the engineer later in the week.

- on the last day the engineer called up to say he was done and ready to collect payment. I said I couldn't pay as I hadn't seen the work and also the electrician hadn't come round yet and I was sure payment was only meant to occur on satisfactory completion of all the works. He said it was all done and I should pay. Again I said I would rather see the work myself.

- I came home and I was so dissapointed with what I saw and very thankful I hadn't already paid. There were around 10-15 issues/incomplete jobs with the work that had been done. I'll give you the highlights below:
- a radiator that was meant to be removed had been left
- a radiator that was meant to be installed hadn't been installed
- old pipes from the old boiler hadn't been removed and were instead left protruding from the wall
- the old flue hole hadn't been filled on the inside and on the outside had been shoddily filled in (impragas told me they would provide a brick replacement service where the mortar is shaped into looking like brickwork)
- the system hadn't been powerflushed
- pipes had not been put in the place I had requested they should be put
- rubbish hadn't been removed (impragas say they employ a professional waste removal service)

I couldn't believe my eyes. After being so incredibly clear with the engineer about what I wanted-I was certain to make sure everything was crystal clear to him after he appeared to know nothing about the job- he had done so much of the work incorrectly/not even done it at all.

I called up straight away to outline the issues and sent an email that evening to the installation department. I was told hopefully they could get a senior engineer to me the next day. I was told I would get a call the next morning. I didn't. It took me best part of an hour to get through the next morning. I was told to send pictures and they would call me back within 3 hours. I stressed the importance of the work being finished as I had plasterers coming in on the weekend. I received no call back later that day. I called back myself and was told the lady handling my case was in a meeting and would call me back as soon as she came out. I asked the person on the phone to please ensure this happened. She promised me but of course I received no call back and the next time I called up I was told she had left the office and gone home. Towards the end of the day it quickly became apparent that no engineer would be able to come and finish the work before the plasterers. So at additional expense I had to reschedule the plasterers and the flooring fitters who were due to come later. I also paid a plumbing company separately to remove the radiator impragas were meant to remove as impragas was unable to remove it by the time they had originally agreed to. This cost wasn't recovered from impragas.

Originally when complaining on the phone to impragas about all the jobs that were incomplete I mentioned the rubbish left behind and referenced there "professional waste removal service" in the quote they provided me. They said that rubbish would be collected within 48 hours of the completion of the job. To which I said ok thats fine. 2.5 months later and they have yet to provide this service.

After many emails and days of phone calls impragas finally sent an engineer out 8 days after the work was guaranteed to be finished to fix everything. This engineer was very nice and professional and fixed all the jobs. I was so relieved! He worked quickly and efficiently and was able to fix everything in under a day apart from the powerflush which he had to come back to do a few weeks later.

A few weeks later the powerflush was complete. The impragas team asked me to pay for the installation and assured me even though I was paying they wouldn't turn their back on me and would still fix the outstanding issues. I paid.

Another issue with the installation was the thermostat (nest) didn't turn on the heating. I went back and forth between impragas and nest with each side saying it was the others' fault. After 6 weeks and around 6 hours of calltime with nest and impragas, nest sent out a new thermostat. The problem still persisted. Impragas now admitted it must be an installation problem and agreed to send an engineer out. I asked could they please do it within the next 2 weeks as I am away on work for a month after. I called up around 5 times over those 2 weeks to make sure someone would be sent out. The engineer didn't come and now I'm away as of monday.

Another 2 weeks and impragas sent out an electrician. Turns out the nest thermostat was wired in wrong in the first place by the first engineer they sent.

Summary:

- 2.5 months post start date I've paid in full and still haven't received my professional waste collection service or a reimbursement for it, my thermostat doesn't turn on my heating and I've paid extra to have separate contractors come in and fulfill work that impragas was unable to complete within the time frame they had initially guaranteed. Impragas refused to pay for these separate contractors.

- the engineer you get sent can vary a lot in standard, the first I got was awful (David), he left around 10-15 jobs incomplete/not done/done to an appauling standard. The second I got was fantastic (Michal Bienko). If I had been sent Michal originally I'm sure I would have ended up rating impragas 4/5 star despite the ongoing thermostat issue)

- if they guarantee work will be done by a certain time don't trust this guarantee

- the installation and aftercare team is bad at communicating, waste your time and seems to care a lot less after you've paid (save one person called Tracy who I spoke with recently who has been very empathetic and actually calls back when she says she will).

- in pursuing and fixing everything that went wrong I estimate I've wasted probably 5 full working days